The present disclosure relates to a sheet discharge device, as well as an image forming apparatus, for discharging a sheet.
Conventionally, there is known a sheet discharge device for performing postprocessing (punching process, stapling process, etc.) on a sheet before discharging the sheet.
A conventional sheet discharge device includes a discharge roller pair provided at a sheet discharge outlet, a top-surface detection part placed at a position under the discharge roller pair, a discharge tray on which sheets are to be stacked, and the like. The discharge tray is made up/down movable.
As has conventionally been the case, when a paper sheet is discharged onto a discharge tray, the discharge tray is moved down, and thereafter moved up until a top-surface detection part detects a sheet placed at the uppermost layer on the discharge tray, so that an up/down or vertical distance between the uppermost-layer sheet on the discharge tray and the sheet discharge outlet is maintained at a constant distance. As a result of this, a vertical-direction heightwise position of the uppermost-layer sheet on the discharge tray is normally maintained at a target position (a position free from interference with next-sheet discharge).